52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Troublesome.
Abraham Morehouse was a very bad boy. He was a land speculator, land grabber, forger, debtor, a bigamist, and fugitive from New York justice.
Abraham Morehouse, born about 1767, was the youngest son of Col. Andrew Morehouse of Dutchess County, New York. Col. Morehouse of the 3rd Regimenmt of the Dutchess County Militia, was a well known proprieter of the Morehouse Taven on the Fishkill-Hopewell Road in what is now South Dover, Dutchess County near the Connecticut State boundary. His Tavern was frequented by General George Washington (where he wrote several letters in 1780-1781) and other important commanders of the American Revolution.
In January of 1789, Abraham Morehouse ran afoul of the law in New York City. He was indicted on two charges of forging a bond and for uttering and publishing the bond, knowing that it was forged. In 1789, a guilty verdict meant the hangman’s noose. Abraham seemed to be brimming with confidence as he defended himself at the trial and even published a document of the trial. [1] He was only half successful as he was acquitted of the first charge, but not the second and, in May 1789, was sentenced to be executed. [2]
Of course, this must of horrified his father, a patriot of the recently won War against England. Hearing of the news, old Col. Andrew Morehouse wrote a letter to the President of the newly formed United States of America, his Excellency George Washington, dated 29 May 1789, calling on his past association with the General during the War, and to plead for his son’s life: “My youngest son, a promising youth of twenty three now lies under the sentence of Death on the City of Newyork & will be executed in the 5th of June unless mercy can be extended, he was convicted of a Certain forgery, and many peopl thinks unjustly but whether that is the case or not, I do not know, but Your Excellency must be sensible that Guilty or Inocent his dying so shamefull a death must bring an Irreperable disgrace upon me and my family.” [3] No response was located in Washington’s papers, but on 6 June 1789, the Governor of New York (the esteemed George Clinton, friend of Washington and also associate of Morehouse during the War), announced that he “has been pleased to grant a respite, of one month, to Abraham Morehouse…who were to have been executed yesterday.” [4].
Apparently no execution took place, but really not learning from the event, Abraham Morehouse again ran into the law. By 1797, Col. Morehouse and his family had moved from South Dover to Johnstown, Montgomery Co., NY. In the meantime, Abraham Morehouse had married an Abigail Youngs (about 1790) and had two sons, Andrew and George Youngs. But in New York City he was a wanted man and the Court ordered the Sheriffs of Montogomery County to find him.
By 1798, Abraham Morehouse was some forty thousand dollars in debt (which is a LOT of money in 1797!) to an Edmund Prior. Abraham apparently did not show up in Court or respond to the Court order, but in 1796, he was found to be in the possession of some 50,000 acres of land granted to him in the new territory of Kentucky (recently split from Virginia). It was probably after this run-in with the Courts that he abandoned his wife and children and left New York and headed to Kentucky to engage in land speculation.
It was in Kentucky that Abraham Morehouse met up with the land speculator, the Baron de Bastrop (not his real name and he was NOT a Baron). Morehouse purchased an interest from Bastrop in the Spanish Land “grant” in the Ouachita Valley, Louisiana (but no monetary documents exist) and was contracted to induce immigrants to settle the area. Apparently he was only partially successful in fulfilling this contract while engaging in further land speculation in Ouachita and defaulting on loans, leaving a legacy of Louisiana Court cases. An extensive and scholarly treatment of these complex land grabs is described in detail in Mitchell and Calhoun (1939). [5]
Abraham wasn’t done yet! While still married to Abigail Youngs back in old New York, Abraham Morehouse, passed himself as a widower and married Eleanor Hook in 1799 at Fort Miró, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana and had several children by her. [6] Eleanor had no knowledge that his wife was still alive until about 1804. At the time of his 2nd marriage he had also passed himself off as a Colonel (but he had no military service and probably took that title from his father). DeWitt Clinton, who was largely responsible for the Eire Canal, upon visiting Johnson Hall in Johnstown, New York in 1810 describes Morehouse as “a complete villain, who was pardoned when under sentence of death. He is now in the Orleans Territory, a member of their legislature, and worth $200,000.” [7]
Abraham Morehouse passed away about October 1813 in the Mississippi Territory. [8]
After hearing this, both Abigail and her sons, Andrew and George, came to Ouachita to claim Abraham’s lands along with Eleanor and her heirs, which resulted in lengthy court cases lasting over 30 years. In the final court case, widely reported in the press in 1846, the court decided to split the claims between the two wives’ heirs. [9].
Despite all of his shenanigans, the parish of Morehouse in northern Louisiana was named for Abraham Morehouse and the largest city in Morehouse Parish is Bastrop.
[1] Morhouse, Abraham, The First Trial of A. Morhouse, for forgery. Written by Himself. New York, 1789 in the Evans Early American Imprint Collection, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/N17047.0001.001.
[2] “Supreme Court,” Daily Advertiser, (New York, New York), 11 May, 1789, Vol. V, issue 1316, page 2.
[3] George Washington Papers, Series 4, General Correspondence: Andrew Morehouse to George Washington. 1789, Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https.www.loc.gov/item/mgw436404.
[4] “Excellency; Governor;Abraham Morehouse,” New-York Daily Gazette, (New York, New York) 6 Jun 1789, Issue 138, p. 546.
[5] Jennie O’Kelly Mitchell and Robert Dabney Calhoun, “The Marquis de Maison Rouge, The Baron de Bastrop, and Colonel Abraham Morehouse, Three Ouachita Valley Soldiers of Fortune. The Maison Rouge and Bastrop Land ‘Grant,’” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XX (1937), especially 369-462.
[6] Ibid, p. 454-456.
[7] “Obituaries.” New York Weekly Museum, (New York, New York), 16 October 1813, Vol. 2, Issue 24, p. 95.
[8] William W. Cambell. The Life and Writing of De Witt Clinton, (New York: Barker & Scribner, 1849), p. 200.
[9] “Important Land Suit,” New York Herald, 20 January 1846, p. 3, col. 2
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